Manchester United chief David Gill believes his club has been unfairly targeted by the Football Association (FA) because of their success.
The CEO made the claims in his new book, Champ19ns, after the English champions were at the centre of several controversial moments last season.
Manager Sir Alex Ferguson was given a five-match touchline ban for comments made about referee Martin Atkinson in March, while striker Wayne Rooney was handed a two-match suspension after swearing into a TV camera.
Gill said the punishments were harsh and United were being made an example of because of their standing in the game.
I do genuinely believe there have been some poor-ish decisions that, in my opinion, wouldn t necessarily have hit other clubs, he wrote in the book…
Germany manager Joachim Loew has challenged his squad to deliver on their potential and win a trophy.
Loew s side produced a 3-2 friendly win over Brazil on Wednesday, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and youngsters Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle scoring goals.
The nature of the victory in Stuttgart was most impressive and Loew is now of the belief that his side need to progress and take the next step.
The name of the game now is to work even more, Loew told ZDF after the game.
We had excellent showings in tournaments in both 2008 and 2010.
We now have an excellent squad, which is full of quality. We need to take the next step and win a trophy. Personally, I am glad that I have so many options to choose from.
The win was Germany s first …
Gillingham and chairman Paul Scally have been charged by the Football Association (FA) with an act of race victimisation .
The charge relates to the sacking of Mark McCammon in 2011, the London-born Barbados international striker who represented the club for three years.
McCammon subsequently won an appeal for unfair dismissal due to racial discrimination at an employment tribunal in 2012 a ruling that was upheld by a judge the following year.
McCammon was awarded £68,000 in damages after alleging that then Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler refused to pay private medical bills to aid his recovery from injury and docked his wages for failing to turn up to training in heavy snow.
And the FA confirmed on Friday that they have charged the club and Scally …
Guy Moussi has pledged his entire salary to charity after joining Birmingham City on a two-month contract.
The French midfielder arrived at St Andrew s on Thursday having been without a club since leaving Championship rivals Nottingham Forest at the end of last season.
And, rather than being paid for his short-term stay in the West Midlands, Moussi will donate the money to four charitable causes.
The organisations set to benefit from Moussi s stay at Birmingham are the 2011 League Cup winners disabled supporters club, Stop Ebola, a church in Paris, and TEV Soma Charity, which raises money for those affected by the Soma mine disaster in Turkey.
We knew Guy was out of contract and we invited him over to train for a week and he did quite well, said Birmingh…
Jose Mourinho believes Leicester City have found their mojo again under Craig Shakespeare this season, but the Manchester United boss does not expect them to be Premier League title contenders.
The Foxes produced one of the greatest stories in the history of English football in 2015-16 as they won a top-flight title for the first time, while the likes of United and Chelsea floundered.
Their Premier League defence did not go to plan, though, and Leicester having sacked title-winning manager Claudio Ranieri had to battle just to preserve their status in the first tier.
Two games into the 2017-18 season and Leicester have one win and one defeat in the league, although their opening 4-3 loss to Arsenal still had plenty of positives until their late collapse.
Neymar has been granted permission to miss training by Barcelona as his world-record move to Paris Saint-Germain reportedly nears completion.
Reports in Spain on Wednesday morning claimed the Brazil forward visited Barcelona s training ground to say farewell to his team-mates ahead of a €222million switch to the French capital.
A brief statement on Barcelona s Twitter page confirmed Neymar was allowed to forego a practice session with the blessing of head coach Ernesto Valverde.
Neymar Jr hasn t trained on Wednesday with the permission of the coach, Barca tweeted.
Neymar Jr hasn t trained on Wednesday with the permission of the coach
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona)
André Gomes, Ter Stegen and Deulofeu returned to training on Wednesda…
Diego Simeone accepted full responsibility as Atletico Madrid threw away a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3 with Valencia after two stoppage-time goals.
Atletico were 3-1 up after an hour and remained in that position until the second minute of added time, when Hugo Duro pulled one back for the hosts.
The Valencia substitute repeated the trick four minutes later to dramatically level the scores, turning Goncalo Guedes free-kick past Jan Oblak at the near post.
Simeone refused to point the finger at any of his players for the dropped points or begrudge Valencia their turnaround, blaming only himself for the result.
[My players] played an extraordinary match for 80 or 85 minutes, Simeone said to Movistar after the game. The pity is that those points no longer return.<…
Verdict: Real Sociedad double chance
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Hoping to continue on their eye-catching return from the enforced break, Los Blancos will make the trip to an empty Reale Arena when they face off against Real Sociedad on Sunday night.
Real Sociedad
Starting with the hosts, while Real Sociedad may have found the mood in their camp at a season-high prior to the interruption back in March, Imanol Alguacil s men have shown some signs of a struggle since returning to action. Along with having to come from behind to snatch a point off of Osasuna last weekend, La Real were hit with a shock 2-0 defeat away at Alaves on Thursday evening. Suddenly sacrificing their spot in the Champions League positions and now looking to close the deficit, Sociedad…
Best Odds: 1/1
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Looking to make an immediate return to winning ways in the early hours of Sunday, Seattle will welcome Dallas to Lumen Field this weekend.
Seattle Sounders
Starting with the hosts, putting in a downbeat performance earlier in the week as they slumped to a routine 2-0 loss away at San Jose, Seattle will certainly be excited to make a return to Lumen Field here. Still impressing many across the MLS since opening up the 2023 campaign, the Sounders find themselves sat firmly in pole position to clinch a play-off ticket this season. Suffering just a pair of defeats from their last seven domestic appearances, Brian Schmetzer’s side have gained a reputation for their rugged approach on home soil. Last seen in Washington claiming a 1-0 victo…
Manchester United captain Harry Maguire was criticized by Roy Keane, one of his predecessors in that role, for celebrating the opening goal in England s 5-0 thrashing of Albania in the World Cup qualifications on Friday.
England boss Gareth Southgate made an excellent point when he said pundits have to say quotable things to stay relevant in the world of football.
To stay relevant in some of those fields you have to say things that are more quotable.
Gareth Southgate responds to Roy Keane s criticism of Harry Maguire following the players celebration against Albania
— Football Daily (@footballdaily)
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